Nick Saban Guy Quotations

Maybe this guy (Denney) won't mess up twice in a year after he's done it in 10 years, ... But if we were to cut this guy, he would have gotten claimed. And if you watch him snap you would feel the same way. We're not going to second-guess anything that we did.

Nobody has a crystal ball. Nobody can make a prediction. But based on history, the guy is making good progress to come back. ... And as you see his progress being made, it doesn't become a leap of faith to determine whether the guy can come back.

He was the number one guy last year and I think he did pretty well. He didn't do anything to make us think that he couldn't do it.

He did some straight-line running (Monday). He threw the ball some. He took some easy drops. So it's not like this guy is not at a point where he can't start doing some things. Now, I didn't see all that. I'm just going on what the trainer and the people doing the rehab with him did. But he was there early and stayed late and worked hard. We were pleased with what he did.

Here's a guy that's had a character quality career. He's been a leader in the community as well as on his team. Obviously, we've all done something on some occasion in our life that we regret and wish we wouldn't have done.

He's played a great role for this team all year. He's been unselfish, he's been a really good team guy and he's been very helpful with a lot of other players in terms of what he's done. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it as an organization based on what he's done and how he's played and how he's overcome a lot. We're real proud of him.

I would say that if Jason Taylor had played in a 3-4 system somewhere, he would have been a Hall of Fame outside linebacker. There is no question about that based on the athletic ability the guy has. He's smart and he's got great instincts to learn things better than I ever hoped for. It gives us an opportunity to move him around and use him in a lot of different ways.

Just like in Scent of a Woman , you know, when the guy is up there and Al Pacino gives the speech to the headmaster -- give him a chance.

We have total faith, trust and confidence in the guy. The guy has a tremendous amount of ability. He's going to be a long snapper for a long time in this league so the question is do we want to take the time to develop that or do we want to let him go snap for somebody else?

We went ahead and took the guy we could get. If the opportunity presents itself to get a quality, young quarterback in the draft, we will do it.

We are going to get the quarterback ready that is going to play in the game and we are going to try and get the backup ready to be the backup. It is really insignificant to me, because there are players at every position that get limited amounts of reps to be backups and if something happens to the guy ahead of him, whether they are having trouble performing, they get injured or whatever, that guy has got to get you through the game.

Even though our offensive line did a really good job this year, it is an area of our team that we may be able to add something to that might enhance it even more, especially with the kind of running backs that we have. I don't think we have an older guy on our team who is not capable of continuing to play. I think the issue becomes, can they do it and sustain it for the season? Those are the tough decisions that we have to make, but we are going to have to do that with defensive players because we need to get younger.

Every guy that we got rid of all of a sudden is the best player there ever was, and never ever made a mistake or had a problem. We're not going to second-guess. Don't ask me to do it.

Do we want to play him 75 plays in a game? Probably not, ... Do we want to play him in spots and spurts and see how he responds and reacts to it? It's almost like you would do in a preseason game -- six, eight plays, take him out for a few, put another guy in, give him six or eight more and see how he manages it.

Sam has worked hard and played very well for us. He has gotten better and better all year long and has especially played well in the second half of the season. He has been a good guy on our team.

You would hope that a guy would want to do something for positive reasons, because he wants to be successful and he buys into the things that can make him successful at what he does.

You need to wait five years and then we will know whether this guy is a good player or not,

You put your hand in the dirt, you got a guy sitting right there, you have to block him. You don't block him, what does it make any difference whether you are playing right guard, right tackle, left guard or left tackle? You have to move the guy. I think we are overrating anything that we have done, because we are totally missing the point.

They double-covered him a couple of times, actually, so it was the right choice not to throw it to him. But he's a guy we need to have involved in the offense.

It wasn't very effective when the guy fell down and they ran 50 yards for whatever, which to me was the biggest play in the first half.

Doesn't that make perfect sense? Isn't it the Dolphins offense? We don't change systems just because we've got one new guy walking in the building. Why would we change it for all the players on offense? We want to build on what we have.

It was a difficult decision because I thought he was doing very well and making a lot of progress. I don't think it's a situation right now where we can wait for a guy for a significant amount of time.

I'm very much convinced of it. I've been with the guy all this time. He's had a significant amount of drug tests. You know, so it depends on how you define that problem. But I'd just like to say we're going to be very supportive of Ricky.

I know he's going through due process. Ricky is as good a guy as anyone I've ever coached. I never had a problem with him. I have nothing but the highest regard for him. I hope things work out to have him on our team in the future.

He's still hard to block. He does a great job of using his hands. He still plays with a lot of power. He still can rush and block people back to the quarterback. He's very instinctive on the field -- batting balls down and making a lot of plays. I think the guy is an astounding player and I think he's had a really good year doing what they expect him to do.

He put half of our defensive team in the training room for a week every time we played him. The thing that separates (Brown) from the other running backs available in this draft was his versatility and the number of things that he could do as a football player. I'm surprised that other people ... have not made a more significant emphasis about the versatility this guy has.

The guy is very magical with the ball. He has speed and can change direction. He plays with a tremendous amount of toughness for his size and he's done an outstanding job in what he has been able to do in their offense.